A pack of playing cards featuring controversial caricatures of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and several other Congress leaders and UPA ministers has surfaced in Madhya Pradesh, drawing sharp protest from the state Congressmen even though the BJP sought to distance itself from the controversy. In these cards, the queen is 'Madamji' (Sonia Gandhi), the jack is 'Maun Mohan' (Manmohan Singh), the king is 'Pappuji (Rahul Gandhi), and the joker is 'Dag Singh' (Digvijaya Singh). 'Damadji' (Sonia's son-in-law Robert Vadra), 'Sadma Kursi' (Salman Khurshid), 'Culprit Symbol' (Kapil Sibal) and 'Raja Babu' (former telecom minster A. Raja) are also part of the pack.

Beneath these cards, several scams that rocked the UPA government, along with estimated loss to the exchequer, have also been mentioned.
On the card featuring the prime minister, the Coal allocation scam worth Rs 1.86 lakh crore is printed.The police are yet to trace the origin of the cards as there is no print line.

The state Congress, however, pointed the finger at the BJP, saying it was an attempt to tarnish its image ahead of the Assembly elections."The BJP is behind it. The BJP will resort to these tricks to tarnish the image in the run-up to the elections. It is not going to halt us. We are going to lodge a complaint," said Ajay Singh, leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly.

The BJP dismissed the charge saying the party had nothing to do with it. "Such allegations against the party will not be tolerated," BJP vice-president Prabhat Jha said.The playing cards controversy has erupted days before the BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is to address a major party rally in Bhopal.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, BJP president Rajnath Singh and L.K. Advani are also scheduled to attend the 'Karyakarta Mahamukbha' on September 25. Intelligence officials are trying to trace the source of controversial playing cards. "So far, there has been no complaint about this. We will examine the matter," Bhopal Range Inspector General of Police Upendra Jain said.
The report about the availability of controversial playing cards appeared in a Hindi daily on Sunday.